


Now and Later

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Paint The Sky With Stars [26]
Category: Night World - Fandom, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Crossover, Fusion, M/M, au - witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 12:31:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7171334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Author’s choice, author’s choice, don’t fight me now ‘cause you might need me later."</p><p>Lines in the sand are drawn between John and Evan, and Teyla isn't sure where to stand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now and Later

No one understood what had happened between Evan and John. One moment John was covered in blood and ordering the Marines to take a still-injured Evan (with a knife in his shoulder!) to the brig and Ronon with him, the next John was in isolation in the infirmary yet again as he screamed down the walls with vampire withdrawals and Ronon and Evan were hiding in Evan’s quarters and not even emerging for food (which Teyla brought to them on trays, even though they were not speaking to her).  
  
The Marines didn’t know who was even in command anymore - Woolsey had given that task to Teldy, the official reason being that both the military commander and his 2IC were recuperating from injuries. Teyla knew John was not injured in the strictest sense of the word, but he was obviously in pain. Who was also obviously in pain was Rodney, who wandered the halls pale and listless, poking at his laptop and barely noticing when anyone snapped at him. Zelenka had tried to goad him into an argument more than once to get the old Rodney back, but Rodney was exhausted.   
  
“Rodney,” Teyla said, catching him in the hallway with empty trays of food she had retrieved from Ronon and Evan, “are you all right?”  
  
“He shut me out.” Rodney blinked dazedly. “I can’t reach him. I know he’s in agony, but I can’t get past his wall. I -” He shook his head and shuffled away, prodding his data pad with slow, hesitant hands.  
  
Evan’s physical wound had been healed, but Teyla had seen the bleakness in his eyes when Carson finally deemed him stable enough to be released from the infirmary.  
  
Woolsey put both John and Evan’s gate teams on stand-down until further notice, and Evan’s Marines skulked around the training rooms and commissary, eyeing the Marines who’d arrested Evan and Ronon with thinly-veiled anger.  
  
No one was surprised when Walker, Coughlin, Stevens, and Reed got into a fight with what looked like the entire rest of the Atlantis Marines. Teldy waded into the fray, Vega and Mehra trying to help calm things down, but it wasn’t working. Teyla hovered on the sidelines, unsure of what to do other than to radio for Woolsey, see if he couldn’t shout some sense into them, because they weren’t listening to Teldy.  
  
Teyla saw Rodney huddled with the other scientists in the corner of the commissary, watching the flying fists and cafeteria trays with wide eyes.  
  
Woolsey arrived. “What is the meaning of this?”  
  
The Marines’ answer was a flung cafeteria tray, which Woolsey ducked in a startling display of reflexes. Teyla immediately stepped up to defend him. Which turned out to be unnecessary, because Dr. Kusanagi, a tiny woman from an Earth nation called Japan, rose up, picked up a cafeteria tray, and smacked a Marine over the head with it. He wasn’t expecting it. He went down hard. Kusanagi darted into the fray, laying about her with the tray, and the Marines were so unprepared for attack from such a tiny woman that a good half of them went down before Woolsey managed to yell them into submission.  
  
The Marines and soldiers picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and, at a command from Teldy, arranged themselves into ranks for a dressing down.  
  
Woolsey cleared his throat, prepared to speak, and then the alarm went off.  
  
Teldy lifted a hand to her radio at the same time as Teyla heard Chuck say, “Ronon and Major Lorne have attacked Ops and are disabling the shield on the Stargate.”  
  
“What? I haven’t authorized them for gate travel,” Woolsey said.  
  
And suddenly Teyla understood. She cast a look at the Marines, most of whom were itching to go respond to the threat. Walker, Stevens, Coughlin, and Reed stood perfectly still, expressions grim and knowing. Satisfied.  
  
Teyla ran for the nearest transporter. She arrived in Ops in time to see the wormhole open, the rush of blue not-really-water. Ronon had all of the Ops technicians backed into a corner, keeping them in place with threat of his blaster, while Evan typed at the control panel.  
  
“It’s done,” he said. “Address erased from the database. Let’s go.”  
  
He glanced over his shoulder at Ronon, who nodded, keeping his blaster trained on the technicians.  
  
Teyla drew her pistol. “Stop!”

Evan and Ronon paused halfway down the stairs to the gate.  
  
“We have to do this,” Evan said in a low voice. “You know that.”  
  
“The Marines are on their way.”  
  
Ronon smiled, a ghost of his old amused smile. “No, they’re not.”  
  
Teyla cocked her pistol. “I cannot let you go. The security of Atlantis -”  
  
“Will remain intact, and you know that.” Evan’s smile was sweet and sad and made Teyla want to weep. “And you know that gun won’t hurt us, not for long.”  
  
“Evan -”  
  
“Don’t fight us now. You might need us later.”  
  
Teyla managed to choke out, “We need you now.”  
  
Evan shook his head. “No, you don’t.”  
  
Ronon started toward her, and Teyla swung her gun toward him, but he caught her in a crushing embrace.  
  
She barely had time to hug him back before he and Evan dashed for the gate.  
  
By the time Woolsey and Teldy and a handful of Marines arrived in Ops, the gate had shut down, and Ronon and Evan were gone.  
  
Woolsey gave them seventy-two hours to change their minds, had Teyla dial out to their allies, but no one had seen them. Then he listed them MIA, named Teldy the new 2IC, and shuffled Evan’s Marines into different gate teams.   
  
When John was released from the infirmary, fully human once more, he took the news like a physical blow, falling back a step and bowing his head, breathing hard. He was still shutting Rodney out, and they were sleeping in separate rooms again, and after consulting with Teyla, Woolsey decided it was high time that the military commander and CSO stop putting themselves on the front lines and stay back in Atlantis, let other teams shoulder the burden.  
  
Teyla accepted a position on Teldy’s team after Mehra was killed by one of Michael’s experiments, and she rarely saw Rodney and John, and never saw them together.  
  
Both of them were ghosts, performing their duties with strict perfection, but always half a step behind, as if neither of them were really present in the physical world. Teyla wondered if they were still in that other world, where their minds met, or if Rodney was still trying to get past John’s wall.  
  
She’d just about thought everything was back to normal when Franklin’s team came back through the gate with grim news: the three-hundred Satedan survivors had come together and moved back to Sateda and were open to trade relations with some of Atlantis’s allies, were rebuilding the planet. They’d gone home, and they’d brought their ancient gods with them.  
  
For the first time in a long time, Teyla saw lucidity and fire in John’s eyes, and she was afraid.


End file.
